Video: Can Daniel Jones, Giants attack the middle of the field?

The New York Giants upgraded their offensive personnel and play-calling this offseason after an abysmal two seasons consecutively finishing 31st in the NFL in scoring. The ability to move the football was lacking, but the Giants pulled key assets from two of the most impressive passing offenses in the league.

New York hired Brian Daboll - the former Bills offensive coordinator - as their head coach while upgrading Mike Kafka - the former Chiefs quarterbacks’ coach - to be their offensive coordinator. Quarterbacks Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes were the catalysts to the thirdrd and fourth (respectively) highest-scoring offenses in the league, but their play calling and designs were also important ingredients.

According to Sharp Football Analysis' advanced team success metrics. the Giants were the least efficient offense in the NFL last season. That should come as no surprise to anyone who witnessed the 2021 Giants’ “offense.” According to the same metric, the Chiefs were the most efficient - despite their woes - and the Buffalo Bills were the third-most efficient, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers splitting the two. The chart is ranked by the Successful Play Rate of every offense.

Successful Play Rate can be described as the frequency that a play generates the necessary yardage (based on down/distance) to grade as successful. Furthermore, the Chiefs finished first in successful passing play rate, and the Bills were sixth.

One reason these offenses were so successful was their ability to command and operate in the middle of the field. The Chiefs used variations of Y-Cross with Tyreek Hill as the number three receiver from a 3x1 set while Travis Kelce operated as the lone receiver. The Bills would call double-crossers and a lot of levels type of concepts.

The teams’ ability to stretch the field with speed and arm strength opened up voids in the intermediate parts of the field, between the numbers. Daniel Jones lacks the big arm of Mahomes and Allen, but he’s been very accurate on his deep passes in his young career, albeit he hasn’t attempted many deep shots beyond 20 yards in the middle of the field.

I expect the Daboll/Kafka offense to feature a lot of route concepts that will provide Jones an opportunity to take shots or throw through windows in voided space between the numbers at a depth of 10-20 yards. There will be simplified reads and quick-hitting passes, but attacking the intermediate parts of the field on Dig and Over routes will also be a part of this offense.

In this video, we prognosticate the Giants' 2022 offense by looking into Daniel Jones’ ability to attack the middle of the field.